Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

As we are debating Europe Day and Ireland's place in the EU, I will take the opportunity to talk about one group for which the experience has been negative, our fishing and coastal communities. The issue relates to how the Common Fisheries Policy has been rolled out, interpreted and enforced in Ireland and how it has repeatedly gone unchanged. A 14-year-old girl has done more than most in recent years to expose the inherent contradictions at the heart of the Common Fisheries Policy that undermine the European Union's core message of fairness. The girl in question is Muireann Kavanagh from Arranmore, an island off the coast of Donegal. For generations, her family has relied on the waters around them to eke out an existence. Muireann fished with hook and line to catch pollock. Using a hook and line is the form of fishing that involves the lowest impact possible. It is the most sustainable method and the fish is therefore really high quality produce. A ban has been introduced and the catch allowed is zero. Even though larger boats can catch pollock as a by-catch when catching other fish, the Government can see no way at all to allow Muireann to continue to fish and insists that it is prevented from allowing her to do so.

Remember, this is a 14-year-old girl who uses a hook and line to fish. One will then see super trawlers off the Arranmore coast hoovering up fish from the sea. It is a matter of public record that the largest such trawlers are owned by the massive Dutch multinational PVP. There is the Margiris, which is 447 ft long, and there is the Annelies Ilena,which is 472 ft long. The latter is the largest super trawler in the world. It is perfectly legal for them to hoover up fish from our seas on a regular basis, even though they have been found, in the case of the Margiris, guilty of reckless practices in that fish that were not profitable for them in recent times were put aside.

We have a 14-year-old girl with a hook and line who is told she cannot fish and her living is being squeezed. She did not accepted that . She wrote to the Minister for the marine, Deputy McConalogue, and recently she went to Strasbourg and met senior stakeholders there. The particular episode I have just outlined demonstrates the injustice of how the Common Fisheries Policy is implemented. Huge corporations can buy up quota from member states all across the EU and assign these to a couple of boats that can sail out and do whatever they want. However, the young girl to whom I refer cannot use her method of fishing. Anybody can see that that is not a sustainable and fair system.

Of course, the big picture for Irish fishing communities is that we have a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. As a result, the waters from 12 miles off our shores out to 200 miles come under the jurisdiction of the Common Fisheries Policy. The large majority of the fish caught in those waters are caught by other member states. Nobody is arguing that this should not happen or that it all should be just Irish boats. However, they are asking for fairness. If you think about climate change, surely it makes sense that those communities which are closest to those waters would get the first opportunity and sole attachment. That is what the British got. As part of the Brexit deal, it was agreed that they would reclaim a large amount of the fish in their waters. That was accepted. It was on of the main aspects of the EU–UK trade an co-operation agreement. We lost out badly, to the tune of €43 million per annum over five years, as a result of that.

What are the implications of this failure? I am using this opportunity to appeal to our Government to have a plan to challenge the injustices of the Common Fisheries Policy. Base it upon Muireann Kavanagh's story and say that this cannot stand, that it undermines the European project in the eyes of decent people and that what is happening in our waters cannot be sustained. My appeal is that the Government change course, come up with a plan and stand up for our fishing communities.

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